"Can you raise your arm above your head?" Maxima asked, her hands probing his shoulder and ribs.

 

Hal did his best to lift his left arm, but was unable to get it higher than his chest. Maxima trailed her hands across his arm, poking and pinching at different places to test his response. He suffered her amateur attempts to play nurse only because Fate was gone and Cyborg was with Flash down in D.C. 

 

"Does it hurt when I press here?" she asked, putting some pressure between his elbow and triceps. 

 

"No," he replied, doing his best to keep the frustration and annoyance out of his voice. He's already explained where the pain was when he tried to lift his arm. Cyborg would not have needed this much explaining to identify the problem. "It's in my shoulder muscles."

 

"And you're sure it doesn't hurt when I press here?" Maxima put even more force in her pinch. Was she trying to break his arm?

 

Hal jerked his arm away from her, something that proved quite easy considering her considerable strength. "I'm pretty sure."

 

Maxima nodded, then moved over to a nearby table.

 

Hal sat on a short chair in the Watchtower's medical examination room, or, as Barry liked to call it, the "nurse's office." It consisted of lots of electrical readers, brain scanners, X-Ray machines, MRI scanners and more, all generously donated by WayneTech. Despite the amount of equipment in the room, it was still a large room with much more space available, able to accommodate dozens of patients and doctors if necessary.

 

Maxima was only a temporary stand-in for Cyborg. Fate was supposed to be here, but he... well, nobody really liked talking about it. Fate had been an unfortunate victim, amongst many others, in Brainiac's assault on Washington D.C. He wasn't dead, but he wasn't much better. His mind had been severely damaged, making it so that none of the Justice League's mind readers had been able to get inside of his head to communicate with him. His time since then had been spent in a stupor, unable to eat by himself. 

 

Hal felt bad for him, obviously. This sort of life was deserved by no one, but there wasn't much he could do about it. If J'onn couldn't fix him, then chances were he couldn't do anything either.

 

Hal wasn't wearing his ring at the moment. After returning to the Watchtower, he had removed it so that Maxima could see his bare arm. He doubted that he would be able to leave with permission to use the ring.

 

Maxima returned to his stool with a book open about responding to alien poisons in someone's blood. After tracing through several lines with her index finger, she put the book down and took a hold of his arm again. She pressed with her thumb into his palm. "Does that bother you?"

 

"No," Hal replied. "Look, can we just take this to Cyborg?"

 

"He's on post," she said, rolling his wrist around.

 

"I get that," Hal snickered. "I'm sure he has a lot of down time too."

 

"It's okay. I know what I'm doing."

 

Her words sounded less reassuring when she looked at the open book on the floor. When Hal trailed her vision down to the floor, the book flipped closed on its own, a result of her telekinesis.

 

"Okay," Maxima began. "Your muscle function should return in a few days. Until then, I recommend staying away from the gym. Your body should purge the poison on its own like the flu, but it will take a while. If you feel yourself getting weak or dizzy over the next few days, be sure to call me."

 

"No pills?" he checked, standing up.

 

"No pills. All that happened was that the poison caused a blood clot in your axillary artery. As long as you don't stress it over the next few days, it will go away."

 

"Thanks." Hal looked at the other patient in the room. "How's Elyssa?"

 

Maxima led the way over to one of the many beds in the room. Elyssa lay there, covered in sheets and blankets to keep her warm. After asphyxiating on Yheda, she had not woken up once. It hasn't been that long ago, so he wasn't particularly worried, but he felt guilty knowing that she was victim just as much as he was. She hadn't been in control of herself when she had been attacking him.

 

"She's still in shock," Maxima explained, stopping at the foot of her bed. "She's responding well to J'onn whenever he comes by to get in her mind and we haven't had a problem in getting her to eat. I expect she'll make a full recovery."

 

"I hope so," he said. He folded his arms. "I didn't mean to hurt her."

 

"You didn't," Maxima assured him. "You could have done a lot worse than what you did."

 

"She'll be sent home?"

 

"Yes. Once she wakes up, J'onn will give her the standard memory wipe and we'll bring her back to Earth."

 

"Good," Hal stated. "This was the last Pink Lantern in my sector."

 

"Good," Maxima replied. "Speaking of which..." She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a dull pink ring. "This is for you. I checked it earlier; it's completely drained. I suspect you'll want to have it returned to the Guardians."

 

"Right." Hal tenderly took the ring from her hand. Even though she had assured him that the ring was completely empty of power, he preferred to be careful, not wanting it to end up controlling him the same way it had controlled Elyssa. 

 

"You know, we can always call them to pick it up."

 

"They won't like that. I'll bring it back when I'm able."

 

Maxima shrugged. "Your call. You know the drill?"

 

"Two weeks out of the field, don't put on the ring, and enjoy my vacation," Hal recited.

 

"Good boy. J'onn's upstairs near the teleporter. Let him know when you want to head back to Earth."

 

"Will do," Hal said. "Thanks, Maxima."

 

She smiled at him, then turned and went over to one of the machines. Hal spared one last look for Elyssa before turning and leaving the room. He stepped into the Watchtower's elevator, pressing the button to take him to the top floor where the teleporter was.

 

The doors closed on him, and the elevator began moving. It was a slow elevator, designed that way so that Barry would have to either wait inside or take the stairs. Nobody really wanted to be stuck in a box with him, so the slow pace of its ascent discouraged him from using it. At least, that was the joke Cyborg had given him when Hal had asked about it. Truth was, the elevator didn't go very fast because it was made of a heavy metal meant to be able to carry the heaviest people in Justice League up.

 

After half a minute or so, the elevator rumbled and came to a stop a floor that was not the top. The doors opened and in stepped a short blonde woman wearing a white leather jacket with a low midriff tank top along with matte black pants and boots. She had a large bust that threatened to slip under the tank top, but even if it didn't, the tank top didn't hide much anyway. Hal guessed she couldn't have been older than twenty-five.

 

She looked shocked at him being in there, not recognizing him without his ring on. Her blue eyes narrowed in suspicion. Hal felt that he recognized her somewhat, though he couldn't remember where. She must have been new to the Justice League if she couldn't recognize him without the ring on.

 

"Easy," he soothed. "I'm not an intruder."

 

The young woman's posture softened, and she moved closer inside the elevator to allow the doors to close. Hal shifted aside so that she could press the button to her floor. Once she was done with that, she stepped into place beside him as the elevator began its slow ascent again.

 

An uncomfortable smile grew on her face during the silence between them. Hal thought he understood: a new girl, young and not knowing anyone else showing up for the toughest job in the world. He could only imagine her anxiety.

 

"You okay?" he checked, leaning slightly against the wall of the box.

 

She turned to glance at him sidelong over her shoulder before turning back in a swaying motion. "Oh. Yeah, I'm... I'm fine."

 

"Have we met before?"

 

"Maybe," she replied. "I'm new here."

 

I guessed that, Hal thought. "You got a name?"

 

She faced him once more, keeping her crisp blue eyes on his. "I'm Siren."

 

Hal felt a slight pinch behind his eyes for a moment before he remembered where he had seen her before. "Ah, yes, Siren. I believe we have met, then. You were there when the Furies attacked Metropolis, right?"

 

"Yes," Siren replied tersely. 

 

Hal waited for her to say more, but she didn't. He quietly sighed, wondering if he had put her off by asking her too much. He hoped not, but maybe she wouldn't remember this next time she saw him with the ring on. It would be a while anyway.

 

The elevator stopped on the floor for dangerous substance storage. He raised an eyebrow at her, wondering if she had pressed a wrong button. But no, she confidently stepped out of the elevator when she was able to, going straight for the kryptonite case.

 

"Siren?" he called out uncertainly. What was she doing?

 

Siren gasped in realization, and she turned to face him, as if she had forgotten he was there. "Sorry," she tried.

 

"What's going on here?" Hal demanded, his hand reaching for the Green Lantern ring in his pocket.

 

Siren winced at his scolding tone. She beckoned for him to come closer. Apprehensive, he leaned down to allow her to speak into his ear.

 

"Forget you saw me," Siren whispered.

 

The elevator doors closed after opening before for some reason. Hal didn't know why the elevator had stopped twice now if nobody had gotten on. He shrugged to himself, making a note to ask Cyborg to fix the elevator controls. 

 

The elevator finally stopped at the top floor, prompting him to get off the elevator. J'onn was standing before the teleporter, clearly expecting him. The Martian looked up at him and gave a smile. 

 

"Hello, Hal," J'onn said in his slow, deliberate way of talking. "Perhaps I am simply falling out of depth with my friends, but is there a reason you clench your hand in your pocket?"

 

Hal looked down at his hand, startled that he had failed to notice his right hand tightened in a fist inside of his pocket. Why had he done that? He hadn't seen anything in the elevator that would have put him on edge. Why, nothing had happened in that elevator.

 

Hal relaxed his grip and pulled his hand out of his pocket. "No reason, I guess."

 

"Are you certain?" J'onn asked. "If you are experiencing difficulties accepting your vacation, I am certain we could ask Maxima to put you in a coma."

 

Hal gave him a blank look. "I'm fine."

 

J'onn smiled again. "Then I would suggest that you step onto the teleporter and let me send you to Star City."

 

He frowned, but stepped forward onto the teleportation pad anyway. "Star City? Why not Gotham as usual?"

 

"Have you not been made aware?" J'onn asked, surprised. "Bruce has been arrested."

 

"Arrested? They caught him?"

 

"No. He is accused of having bribed the city's police force and attacking their base."

 

"Christ," Hal commented.

 

"Quite," J'onn added. The Martian moved over to the control panel in the room to input a receivable destination closest to Coast City. "Shall I send you to Oliver now?"

 

"I'd appreciate it," Hal said, imitating his friend's robotic dialect. He wasn't as bad as Barry, but even he couldn't resist cracking a joke every now and then.

 

J'onn smirked, then activated the teleporter. The room began turning orange from Hal's point of view from the pad, growing blotches of it spurting from all around until it completely filled his vision. Two week vacation, here I come. I just have to figure out what the hell a single guy's supposed to do on vacation.